Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s body returned to his mother, spokesperson says

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s body has been returned to his mother, his spokesperson said Saturday.

Navalny, 47, died in prison, the country’s prison service said last week. He was serving a combined 30 ½-year jail sentence when he died.

“Huge gratitude to everyone who has been demanding this with us. So far Lyudmila Ivanovna is in Salekhard,” Navalny’s spokesperson, Kira Yarmys, said in a translated post on X. “We don’t know whether the authorities will interfere with carrying them out the way the family wants and as Alexey deserves. We will provide information as it becomes available.”

There is no immediate information about what led to his death. The region’s investigative committee has said it launched a “procedural investigation.” 

Russia’s Federal Prison Service had said that Navalny died after feeling ill following a walk. The prison service said an emergency medical team performed all “necessary resuscitation measures” but they were unsuccessful.

His allies had raised concerns about Navalny’s health and the conditions of the jail, saying he had to spend many days in cramped “punishment cells” for minor conduct violations. 

The day before he died, Navalny addressed a court via video link from the penal colony and appeared to be healthy. His mother, Lyudmila Navalny, had also said he appeared “healthy and happy” the last time she saw him, according to a Russian newspaper.

Navalny, Russia’s most outspoken Kremlin critic, was poisoned with a military nerve agent while on a business trip in Russia in 2020 — an attempt on his life that he blamed directly on Russian President Vladimir Putin. For more than a decade, he had led nationwide protests…